Over at Weather Underground, they are all excited about a new monthly high temperature record. Christopher Burt writes:
Wichita, Kansas Measures May Monthly High Temperature of 102°
On Sunday, May 4th, the temperature peaked at 102° at Wichita’s official NWS site Mid-Continent International Airport. Not only was this the hottest temperature ever measured during the month of May (previous record was 100° set on four different occasions) but was the earliest 100° reading on record (previous was May 9, 2011) and hottest reading so early in the season by a whole month: since June 4, 1933 when 102° was also observed. The city is off to its 2nd driest start of the year on record as well. Temperature and precipitation records for Wichita date back to 1888.
But, as I’ve pointed out many times, airports are one of the absolute worst places to measure temperature for climatic records. Not just because the airports themselves are massive heat sinks of asphalt and concrete, but also because the ASOS weather station system is known to be highly unreliable and prone to giving false high temperature readings like in Honolulu, Tucson, and more recently in Tacoma, where after fixing the ASOS temperature sensor, temperatures dropped to normal levels.
Have a look at where this thermometer is located for Wichita:
I think the asphalt pad right next to the ASOS (just north) is a nice touch, don’t you?
Location: 37.647564 -97.430027 Looking North. Image from Bing maps: http://binged.it/1mvYRyf
But look at the larger picture:
Looking North. Image from Bing maps
The location of the ASOS weather station is shown circled in red. It is surrounded on all sides by tarmac. You can bet that measurement environment didn’t exist for previous May high temperature records in Wichita.
Let’s look at the data for May 4th from KICT:
Source: http://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KICT/2014/5/4/DailyHistory.html?req_city=NA&req_state=NA&req_statename=NA
Note that the high temperature of 102°F was set during a period of gusty winds which look to be WNW at the time. Winds normally act to suppress mid-day high temperatures, because the mixing interrupts the boundary layer and surface heating from solar insolation. Unless of course, that wind is doing heat transport from the road, tarmac, and nearby asphalt pad to the WNW. It is also possible that the ASOS temperature sensor malfunctioned in some way, giving an erroneous high temperature, which happens with some frequency according to the links to previous events I gave earlier.
No other nearby stations set records over 100°F:
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
130 AM CDT MON MAY 5 2014
...NUMEROUS RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES SET ON MAY 4TH...
WICHITA MID-CONTINENT AIRPORT REACHED 102 DEGREES AT 306 PM THIS
AFTERNOON. THIS NOT ONLY SHATTERED THE MAY 4TH RECORD OF 94 DEGREES
SET IN 1963...IT ALSO BROKE THE RECORD FOR THE EARLIEST 100 DEGREE
OR HIGHER TEMPERATURE...WHICH WAS MAY 9TH...2011.
SALINA REACHED A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 96 DEGREES TODAY. THE
PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 95 DEGREES SET BACK IN 2012.
CHANUTE REACHED A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 94 DEGREES TODAY. THE
PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 92 DEGREES SET WAY BACK IN 1909.
And, no other NOAA operated COOP station under the NWS Wichita office hit 102°F:
MAX/MIN TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TABLE
FOR CENTRAL...SOUTH CENTRAL AND SOUTHEAST KANSAS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WICHITA KS
921 AM CDT MON MAY 5 2014
.BR ICT 0505 C DH07/TAIRZX/TAIRZN/PPDRZZ/SFDRZZ/SDIRZZ
:
: Cooperative temperature and precipitation observations
: for the previous 24 hours ending around 7 am local time
:
:....................................................................
: ID Station Obs Max Min 24HR Snow Snow
: Name Time Temp Temp Pcpn Fall Depth
:....................................................................
:
: Cooperative observations for Central Kansas
:
BNSK1: Burns : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
CLFK1: Claflin : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
CWFK1: Cottonwood Falls : DH0800/ 97 / 58 / 0.00 / /
KANK1: Kanopolis Lake : DH0600/ 97 / M / 0.00 / /
LICK1: Lincoln : DH0700/ 89 / 50 / 0.00 / /
LSBK1: Lindsborg 3E : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
MCPK1: McPherson : DH0700/ 94 / 51 / 0.00 / /
PEAK1: Peabody : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
SRLK1: Sterling : DH0700/ 99 / 54 / 0.00 / /
SYLK1: Sylvan Grove 1NE : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
WLSK1: Wilson Lake : DH0800/ 90 / 49 / 0.00 / /
:
: Cooperative observations for South Central Kansas
:
ANYK1: Anthony : DH0700/ 101 / 60 / 0.00 / /
AGTK1: Augusta : DH0630/ / / 0.00 / /
BNSK1: Burns : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
CWFK1: Cottonwood Falls : DH0800/ 97 / 58 / 0.00 / /
ELDK1: El Dorado : DH0700/ 100 / 63 / 0.00 / /
HSEK1: Haysville 3SE : DH0800/ 101 / 64 / 0.00 / /
HUTK1: Hutchinson : DH0600/ 101 / 58 / 0.00 / /
NWTK1: Newton : DH0700/ 101 / 61 / 0.00 / /
OXDK1: Oxford : DH0800/ / / 0.00 / /
PEAK1: Peabody : DH0700/ / / 0.00 / /
WLGK1: Wellington : DH0600/ 100 / 58 / 0.00 / /
WWXK1: Wichita Weather : DH0705/ / / 0.00 / 0.0 /
: Cooperative observations for Southeast Kansas
:
CFVK1: Coffeyville : DH0600/ 94 / 59 / 0.00 / /
HMBK1: Humboldt : DH0700/ 93 / 65 / 0.00 / /
INDK1: Independence : DH0700/ 96 / 38 / 0.00 / /
IOAK1: Iola Water Plant : DH0800/ 93 / 66 / 0.00 / /
MRNK1: Moran : DH0800/ / / 0.00 / /
MVLK1: Mound Valley 3 WSW: DH0800/ 93 / 61 / 0.00 / /
PARK1: Parsons : DH0800/ 91 / 61 / 0.00 / /
SDAK1: Sedan : DH1300/ 98 / 65 / 0.00 / /
YATK1: Yates Center : DH0700/ 95 / 64 / 0.00 / /
:
.END
It seems to me that this record is suspect.
=================
[UPDATE by Willis] This post of Anthony’s inspired me to do some sleuthing. First, the history of the station is here. It reveals that the weather station moved from downtown Wichita to one airport in 1940, and then to its current airport in 1953. It switched to the ASOS automated system in 1992.
And an inordinate amount of digging located a 1956 photo of the airport, not long after the weather station moved there.
In comparison with the current aerial photo, we see that a third runway has been been added. You can also see that the airport in 1956 was surrounded by miles of farmland on all sides … and how it has suburbs all around it now.
Regards,
w.
Obviously it was hot in Kansas. But when no other station is even close to that, you have to question it. Unless you don’t want to.
Look ASOS – We’re not in Kansas anymore
Don’t sweat it; if the temperature was cooler than required it would have been adjusted up. So you can rest assured that this temperature will be left alone.
Unless, of cause, “The Pause” continues for much longer; in that case it will (eventually) be adjusted down.
6 nearby stations reported at or above 100. Are those not close to 102? And those stations are closer to Wichita than those shown for Central Kansas or Southeast Kansas. Those two groups shouldn’t even be used to compare to Wichita.
He did go on to show the record lows too though….
“Another remarkable fact is that just two days previously, on May 2nd, the temperature fell to 35°, only 2° shy of the daily record low temperature of 33° set in 2005. Russell, Kansas did break its daily record with a chilly 28° and Wichita Falls, Texas broke its all-time monthly low for May with a 35° reading (previous record 36° on three previous occasions).”
Here is a local TV weather map. Also 102°F in Medicine Lodge. 101°F in Hutchison.
Remember back when you wanted to fool your parents into thinking you were sick because…..
like…. you had nothing of value to say on your exam at school the next day….. so, you needed to
FAKE A FEVER?
Here’s how (in case you want the doctor to write you a note so you can get out of work and go play golf or go to the beach …):
Hm. I just wonder why the above idea occurred to me…. .
lol — what a bunch of OBVIOUS FAKERS!
Too obvious, guys. Try rubbing the thermometer on your jeans instead.
#(:))
***********************************
@ phaed-whatever
re: “6 nearby stations reported at or above 100…. .” And you know those stations are accurate?
How?
@phaedruscj,
The point isn’t the temperature; the point is it’s being called a record when it’s not.
I think that the Wichita reading was skewed by the location, but with the temps around 100/101 in Hutchinson, Newton, Haysville, El Dorado, and others, I think that 101 wouldn’t be out of the question. The other sites could well be skewed also, Newton for example, IIRC it’s on the local airport out where Jim Bede used to build aircraft.
Given how desperate the warmists have gotten to have some high temperatures to crow about, I wouldn’t be surprised if a video feed (hypothetically, of course, as if one existed) showed Michael Mann skulking outside the weather station with a portable blow dryer.
The graphic seems to indicate a direction of SSW but the text states WNW.
Do I need glasses?
At least they didn’t put the instrument next to the incinerator at a sewage treatment center.
“Cooking” the books.
I’ve lived in Wichita all my life. Yesterday’s temperature of 102 deg at the airport seemed to be a bit high. The thermometer at my house in the back yard didn’t get over 100. I was out driving at 4 PM and my car read 102 but that was on a concrete street. My house thermometer always reads 2-3 degrees lower than the official station at Mid-Continent Airport (soon to be Dwight D. Eisenhower Airport).
In the 70’s I worked as a surveyor at the airport which was before we had electronic distance meters. We had thermometers attached to our steel tape measures to correct for heat expansion and the temperature of the tarmac could get as much as 12 degrees above the air temperature.
BTW: Haysville (listed above) is 6 miles southeast of the airport.
It was also 103 at Medicine Lodge, 102 at Hutchinson. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/climate/getclimate.php?wfo=ict
[dead link – mod]
And…. of course you’ll need to go to a doctor like those at the Weather Underground Clinic for Psychopathological Medicine……
one willing to look the other way while you mess with the thermometer… .
since June 4, 1933 when 102° was also observed.
Oh, so it happened before….
’nuff said.
But hey hot dry air from a taxiway does numbers….
Sucks to be a wheat farmer.
Maybe next year the new record set May 4, 2014 will be 103F?
I asked this question before on the thread discussing the sensor replacement at the Seattle airport ( see here):
Is there not a regular calibration/certification performed for official recording stations? I realize this would be expensive for the full network of weather reporting stations, but should not at least all the stations designated as the “official NWS site” for any reasonably-sized city be regularly certified?
That doesn’t address the question of whether airport stations should be so designated, but it at least provides more confidence that the reported temperature is accurate for that location.
Dear Bill 2,
No doubt you merely meant to report, but,…. I’d like to clarify your post just a bit:
“{NOAA said that} {i}t was also … .”
Given NOAA’s poor reputation for accuracy in temperature measurement
(See, e.g., http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/03/18/noaas-odd-way-of-presenting-feb-temperatures/
and http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/07/22/why-the-noaa-global-temperature-product-doesnt-comply-with-wmo-standards/
and http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/07/05/questions-for-noaa-and-nps-death-valley-that-have-gone-unanswered-related-to-the-100-year-celebration-of-the-hottest-ever-temperature/),
I think the above edit is simply a fair presentation of NOAA’s alleged data.
************************************************************************
NOAA is just a propaganda machine for the Envirostalinists and Enviroprofiteers (such as windmill project investors):
For “Breezy” — NOAA’s graphic is….. you guessed it! A bunch of windmills:
from: http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=33.448376495000446&lon=-112.07403860799968&site=all&smap=1#.U2gI0sJOVDw
(about 5 minutes ago)
“This
Afternoon
Breezy
http://forecast.weather.gov/images/wtf/medium/wind.png
(windmill graphic)
Breezy”
I know that air temperature right above the tarmac is indispensable for flight operations, but to use these temperatures for climate records?
It is not only the record that is suspect, but the procedure,
Better link to the Hutchinson and Medicine Lodge readings. http://forecast.weather.gov/product.php?site=ICT&product=RTP&issuedby=KS
REPLY: Right, both Hutchinson and Medicine Lodge temperatures were measured at airports, proving my point – Anthony
A lot of construction work going on at the airport:
http://www.flywichita.com/terminal-web-cam.php
Truthfully, I don’t understand what all the excitement is about. So the Wichita airport recorded a transient high of about 1 C more than the previous record? Big deal.
***
The city is off to its 2nd driest start of the year on record as well.
***
There’s the best explanation right there in their own statement, in addition to the adjacent UHI effect. Hardly any evaporative-cooling.
CO2 not required.
before you compare absolutes you have to correct for differences in station altitude.
Period.
or you have to compare anomalies.
Period.
Wichita is a good-sized regional or national airport. It’s obvious from the photos the readings are contaminated by all the concrete and other man-made structures nearby.
Other readers have pointed out that the 102-degree temp recorded in Wichita is not an outlier — several other nearby stations also reported temps over 100. So what do the station sitings look like? Are they all as bad as Wichita’s?
=============================================================
Our host knows a thing or two about siting issues. This “record” is suspect.
The “big deal”, I suspect, will be how this questionable “record” will be used for it’s PR value. You see, it won’t be used as a poorly sited airport record but as an all-time record high for May.
Nip it in the bud.
Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day! Run several jets by a temperature station and some of that warmth will be picked up. Either the people who set this up are really stupid OR they want the readings to be very high.
in addition to the adjacent UHI effect…..
careful, this like many small airports, is probably classed as “rural”
here are three nearby stations at the same altitude.
100.9
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KKSWICHI38#history/s20140504/e20140505/myesterday
and 101.8 Here
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KKSWICHI79#history/s20140504/e20140505/myesterday
and here 101.9
http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=KKSWICHI34#history/s20140504/e20140505/myesterday
“Bob Diaz says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day! Run several jets by a temperature station and some of that warmth will be picked up. Either the people who set this up are really stupid OR they want the readings to be very high.”
The heat from a jet engine at FULL POWER decreases to the ambient air temperature within less than the length of the aircraft.
Look at any airplane land operations safety guidelines published for the ground crews at airports.
having spent a considerable time looking at 1 minute data from airports I will say that you cannot find any evidence that the measurements of Min and Max for the day are effected by this.
There are piles of one minute data.
knock yourself out and look
Bob Diaz says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm
Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day! Run several jets by a temperature station and some of that warmth will be picked up. Either the people who set this up are really stupid OR they want the readings to be very high.
===
No, Bob, they want the readings to reflect take-off conditions for the aircraft (it’s related to lift), that’s why the thermometers are placed where the aircraft take take off. The stupidity is to take these readings as being an indication of something they were not set up to measure and for which they do not fit many of the basic siting criteria.
At least there’s no BBQ grill.
Not only do you have the heat sink of cement, etc. the jets taking off have a very high egt, exhaust gas temperture, to heat the area up. As an example the max egt of a 747-400 at take off is 650 degrees C. That is 1202 F. That will warm the area up nicely!
Here is WWXK1. It’s not the ASOS site, but seems to be on the boundary of the Wichita airport land, 1.6 km from the ASOS. It recorded 101°F
Tarmac is not a “heat sink.” The correct term is “Thermal Mass.” Heat sinks conduct heat away from equipment subject to overheating, as if draining water down the sink. Tarmac is black, tends to be hotter than any natural material when exposed to sunlight, with the possible exception of basaltic rock which is also black, or lava fields.
Mosher, since you know so much, how much hotter are airports than rural grasslands or forests within a mile or two?
This sounds like the ventilation fan on the 1088 was beginning to fail. When I last checked, just before I retired from NWS, the thermoelectric cooler housed in the 1088 sensor head had not been turned off, even though the new relative humidity sensor
had been substituted. If the fan fails, (after about 10,000 hours of operation), the heat
from the thermoelectric cooler is trapped in the sensor housing, about 2 inches away from the RTD temperature measuring device.
There is no sensor to measure if the fan has failed, or is slowing down due to worn out bearings.
Just thought you would like to know the nature of the problem.
WWXK1, where the temp reached 101°F, is a NWS site on the boundary of Wichita airport. Here’s a picture.
REPLY: Yes, but you aren’t showing the full picture Nick. Nice try at diversion. Still a parking lot, nice dark albedo, and all that, a Class 4 station. Note the nice WSR-88D doppler radar heat vents within the thermometer viewshed…wind direction will be a factor in heat transport.
Picture via Bing. http://binged.it/1iknAx0
Anthony
How long as the observation point been in this location again..? For however long it has been, this certainly should be the temperature of record for the date, whatever relative value it is. I don’t think there’s any getting around how hot it was there. The longer the records go back at that location, the more solid ground it attains. As you know, in climate matters, it’s not the absolute temperature value, but the relative change over time.
As phaedruscj points out, there are 6 other stations reporting 100 or 101. A quick Google search for the station codes shows their location: ANYK1, ELDK1, HSEK1, HUTK1, NWTK1, WLGK1. All but 1 (maybe 2) are in neighborhoods surrounded by asphalt streets and likely influenced by UHI.
I’m curious about HSEK1, which reports 101 and appears to be fairly well sited, but Anthony is the expert on that. At any rate it was a very hot day–maybe record high or very close to it–but it’s unlikely that 102 is accurate as compared to previous high temperatures for May. Previous high for May was 100 F in 1913, 1934, 1962, 1967, 1996.
The fact that it was 35 F just 2 days prior is unassailable proof that weather systems have a far larger and immediate impact on us than glacially slow (pun intended) long-term global warming.
Looking at NOAA’s Wichita Climate Records website makes it obvious that the last couple decades are about as warm as it was in the 1930’s:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/ict/?n=records
Michael moon.
If you compare all airports to all non airports there is no
Difference. Except in japan where airports tend to run a bit cooler.
For reference airports are used as the rural reference for many urban rural studies. See oke and Stewart
Why
See long fetch.
At 7meters sec uhi is basically mixed away.
Been measured many times.
REPLY: And the argument you make is still wrong. Trend is one thing, absolutes (Tmax/min) is something else altogether. – Anthony
Bob Diaz says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:53 pm
“Have you ever felt the blast from a jet engine? It’s quite warm, even on a cool day!”
Steven Mosher says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:59 pm
“The heat from a jet engine at FULL POWER decreases to the ambient air temperature within less than the length of the aircraft.”
These two statements don’t add up. Has either of you two fellows actually stood in the blast of a jet engine? It sounds like you have, Bob. Have you?
I know air cools when it is decompressed, but can it really cool 600 degrees in the length of an airplane? (Willis could figure this out on the back of an envelope.)
And how about those reports of gusty winds. Is there a chance the winds are due to the blasts from jets as they turn on the runway?
Climate change on Earth: “glacially slow.” {Lauren T. — 5:06pm}
Very nice.
Typo at 5:17: Lauren R. (sorry about that Ms. or Mr. R.)
Nice questions, Caleb (at 5:15pm) — I’d also like to add:
What raised the ambient temperature to that level?
I had a similar argument with a CAGWer last summer regarding the temperature record at Las Vegas and McCarran IAP. At the time the record was set in the 30’s McCarran didn’t exist. Nellis AFB was a dirt strip. Last summer, surrounding areas, including Death Valley recorded temperatures 3-4*F less than the 1930’s record and coincidentally, Las Vegas had an UHI analysis done in 2010 (http://www.lasvegasnevada.gov/files/UHI_Report_2010-2.pdf) which attributes 3-4*F to the UHI. It’s not that hard to understand.
Well, Anthony, you know if you show me a site, the first thing I have to go and do is rate it.
This one, using Leroy (2010) is at best a class 3 (350 m^2 heat sink within 30 m.) and more probably a class 4, considering that the area directly north looks like is isn’t merely gravel.
Using Leroy (1999), it is a Class 4 in any case.
All of which means it is out of compliance insofar as siting is concerned.
Here is WWXK1. It’s not the ASOS site, but seems to be on the boundary of the Wichita airport land, 1.6 km from the ASOS. It recorded 101°F
No good.
I nailed both the CRS and the F-P from the ground using GE. Looking at it from above, the screen is directly adjacent to a paved path, in a crook almost. And the asphalt from the parking lot starts 5 m. away. Class 4 or even Class 5 rating: No good.
That’s what is going on with homogenization, folks. They find a nice cool Class 2 and then adjust that “outlier” according to the readings of half a dozen nearby sizzling Class 3, 4, or 5 stations.
Bruce G Wilkins says:
“Not only do you have the heat sink of cement, etc. the jets taking off have a very high egt, exhaust gas temperture, to heat the area up. As an example the max egt of a 747-400 at take off is 650 degrees C. That is 1202 F. That will warm the area up nicely!”
This, taken together with Mosh’s comment that the gases cool to ‘ambient’ are relevant. The ‘ambient’ is a parcel of ambient air that has been heated by the tarmac and the engines. If one wants proof that airports are hotter than the surrounding environment, just look for rural stations nearby. This is not turbofan-science.
I see Anthony beat me to it.
When clear sky, dry air, and falling/stalled temp trends are the anomoly pattern, I would expect high daytime temps, even records, during the Spring/Summer/Fall, and cold nights through out, even record cold nights. I don’t give much pause to a daytime high, verified or not, when the nights are rather cold. This is the pattern of “dust bowl” La Nina type conditions that result in stalled or cooling weather pattern variations. Has nothing whatsoever to do with anthropogenic warming.
That doesn’t show everything near the thermometer.
To the north is the main airport
A little to the northwest is the new terminal under construction
To the northeast is a bunch of general aviation buildings
To the southeast is the massive Cessna plant
To the south and southwest is another cluster of industrial buildings
The only direction where there’s nothing is the large nature preserve directly to the west
Heck, the resultant UHI from the north for example is also the reason why we didn’t break the record for lowest ever temperature reading for the month of March (which is about -2).
Our little thermometer attached to our house meanwhile said 98, but it’s a little shaded and is usually a degree or two on the cool side on hot days.
La Nada probably dominated much of the time during the ‘dust bowl’ with La Niña. Causing the jet stream to snake up and down and with blocking sometimes getting stuck pattern. My amateur opinion.
We should note that at the time Wichita recorded the 102 F, at 15:53, Southwest winds were howling at 29 mph, with gusts to 37 mph.
There were a few 18,000 and 25,000 feet clouds.
http://w1.weather.gov/data/obhistory/KICT.html
This was blowing an impressive tongue of heat in that was uniformly distributed in that area and lessening the effect that would occur to a poorly located thermometer with light or calm winds.
I agree that this thermometer could be placed in a better place but under the conditions present yesterday, it was pretty representative of the area.
I forecast for regions, in this case the Hard Red Winter wheat belt and my forecast started adding the number 100 for this region on Tuesday.
Also, much of the HRW crop in the area upstream, where the surface winds were blowing from is about dead from:
1. WInterkill this past Winter as well as from wild fluctuations in temperatures above and below freezing. Slugs of warmth from the Southwest US would come in for a day or two, then be followed by an Arctic blast. This while the crop was still dormant
2. There was little or no snow cover for protection from this when the crop was dormant
3. A couple of spring freezes, one in particular around a month ago with temps in the low 20’s while the wheat was well jointed and vulnerable
4. Numerous very high wind episodes(50 mph+ at times), sometime lasting days, featuring widespread blowing dust and recently, heat.
So the bone dry and mostly bare soils, vs having lush green wheat upstream, where this blast of heat was coming from may have added something like 5-8 degrees F to daytime highs by itself.
No denying it was impressive heat, combined with impressive wind. I shouldn’t have to add that this is weather and nothing shocking but will anyway.
More than half the HRW crop in the TX/OK will be zero yield with close to half in KS/CO that way.
In Eastern KS the HRW is in great shape, this heat did not hurt it.
The rest of the Winter wheat(SRW) crop is OK but very cold temps over Winter took some yield potential away from a crop that had perfect planting conditions last Fall and went dormant in outstanding shape.
This heat has been blowing farther northeast(over wet soils) for over 500+ miles and getting modified but outside of the S.Plains, corn and soybean farmers are welcoming it to dry out and warm up soils that were too wet and cold until recently. They are catching up on corn planting
right now.
The farmers in the N.Plains and Upper Midwest are way behind in planting progress right now (Spring wheat/corn/oats) because the air and soils are even colder. Almost none of the corn and wheat has been planted in ND/MN. They would celebrate if record highs were set(impossible with this set up) with their cold pattern lasting over 6 months now. Unfortunately for them, it will stay too wet and cold, which may start effecting yield potential on the crop not planted within the next few weeks(Summer weather counts most).
I would not be surprised to see some switch to soybeans if we close out May this way.
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/CropProg/CropProg-05-05-2014.txt
Mosher,
As Anthony also pointed out, could you answer the question I asked? And, another, why do you NEVER answer the questions I ask???
Mosher’s weasel words tell us all we need to know about CAGW, makes it so simple. Scientists never ever do it, mock and shun the so-called “Climate Scientists” who even try it once, loser…
The ASOS at McConnell Air Force Base (KIAB) on the east side of Wichita also reported a max temperature of 102 F. I looked on google maps, but could not determine where the KIAB ASOS is located.
Just 5 days earlier the max temperature had been 52 F, so the 102 F represented a 50 degree warm up over just 5 days in Wichita.
Date Tmin Tmax
29 Apr 42 52
30 Apr 39 61
1 May 37 66
2 May 35 74
3 May 42 92
4 May 58 102
The key word in that report is “dry”. I looked down at my phone yesterday afternoon and it was 100F with a dew point of 24 in Wichita. It is rare to be this dry on May 5th, the peak of tornado season. It’s rarely even that dry in August. Is it any wonder why the previous record was in 1933? El Nino, where you at.
I just discovered four Oklahoma mesonet sites near the Kansas border south and west of Wichita reported 103 F yesterday, so now the 102 at two ASOS sites in Wichita does not seem unreasonable:
http://climate.ok.gov/index.php/climate/map/yesterdays_high_temperatures/oklahoma_south-central_u.s
The Oklahoma mesonet sites are generally located in rural locations.
True, but they do make for terrific climactic records.
I’m betting Mosh is wrong on this one. Here’s what the Naval Aviation publishers say here:
High temperatures “several hundred feet” from the tailpipe sure sounds like more than the length of an airplane.
Finally, I’ve been hit by a jet blast from a commercial airplane when I’ve been a couple hundred feet from a big jet … it was definitely warm.
w.
Steven Mosher says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:43 pm
before you compare absolutes you have to correct for differences in station altitude.”
But it is perfectly acceptable to compare averages with absolutes?
Mike Maguire says:
May 5, 2014 at 7:37 pm
What an interesting post. Thank you for your forecast.
Mosh’ says: “The heat from a jet engine at FULL POWER decreases to the ambient air temperature within less than the length of the aircraft.”
Heat doesn’t decrease ( you probably meant temperature ). The heat just mixes, contributing to the ambient air temperature.
Problem with the jet engine is, heat is a radiation. And heat, or better said, temperature also follows the inverse square law.
If you don’t believe me, turn on your oven, hold your bum against it. Then move away one meter. Do it again. Repeat that several times. You will see that the “heat radiation” your bum feels will decrease with distance. Or do it with a burning candle and your hand. Same result.
That’s not even taking into account the temperature exchange between the hot air and the cooler air, following the laws of thermodynamics. And let’s not even start on wind.
So I seriously doubt that the engines have any influence.
The masses of concrete, however, yes. I just need to look out my window in summer. When I moved to where I live now, it was almost rural outside. There were even crop yielding fields, right under my window. Now, 20 years later, there’s a lot of concrete, the fields are gone, the local automobile association built a large building, parking lot and even a parking garage. Two additional roads were built and two large apartment buildings as well. So in summer there is now a lot more material that can be heated up by day, which then takes longer to cool off by night. Of course my window thermometer reflects this easily. It doesn’t mean that “OMG! AGW! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” It just means that the local area has been changed massively.
The nearest USHCN sites to Wichita are El Dorado and Anthony, only 34 and 48 miles away respectively.
The highest May temps were set in 1913 at both sites.(In the case of Anthony, it was 5F higher than this year.
http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2014/05/06/record-temperatures-at-airports/
“Edohiguma says:
May 6, 2014 at 1:58 am”
So the exhaust gasses from the engines which would be at ~850C would have no effect on local air termerature conditions nor on the concerete and buildings around the device to measure temperature at that location?
The effects of artificial heating can be immense. During WW2, when there was no reliable ILS(Instrument Landing System) in operation on British aerodromes, some of these aerodromes got a special equuipment that consisted of long trenches on each side of the Rwy that were filled with petrol and set on fire. During a foggy night this heat, when set free, was sufficient to drive away the fog temporarily, so that a/c crews could bring down their bird safely without having to pancake it somewhere in the neighborhood.
ASOS seems to have two major problems: no plausibility check of the data by the help of a second measuring unit and p*ssed poor maintenance. It’s an absolute no-go to wait until a system breaks down (and that breakdown being discovered just by chance) than replacing units before MTBF is exceeded. It’s a matter of SAFETY. And ASOS must not be used for meteorological obervations. It may be useful for air traffic, but I think it’s data are useless for long-time meteorological data-collection.
The hottest I have ever been in my life was on the tarmac at an airport (Travis AFB, CA). >120° F in the shade, which was a half mile away. I was working inside a C-124 unloading floor-loaded A/C engines. The plane/solar oven had been collecting solar energy all morning and half the afternoon. The interior was >140° F.
And Topeka Ks , not all that far away, is forecast to finally reach 90 deg. today, for the first time this year , per WIBW ch 13 news….
Patrick says:
May 5, 2014 at 11:14 pm
Steven Mosher says:
May 5, 2014 at 3:43 pm
before you compare absolutes you have to correct for differences in station altitude.”
But it is perfectly acceptable to compare averages with absolutes?
—
S.M. is entirely wrong here. You don’t need any altitude correction to compare absolute temperatures. Would 50 deg F in Denver would feel different than 50 deg F in New York City? Of course not (as anyone with some modest background in heat transfer would know).
Trouble is Anthony, you’ve shown us the photos of the shockingly awful, some bastard should be fired, p*ss poor horror show installations. Then we look at that one and think “Could be worse…”……….:-)
MattN says:
Obviously it was hot in Kansas. But when no other station is even close to that, you have to question it. Unless you don’t want to.
Obviously, all the other regional thermometers were miscalibrated, so the temperature readings on them must be adjusted upward to match this one…
/s
By the way, this is good opportunity to remind folks to stop accessing “Weather Underground” for their weather information needs, but instead choose one of the many MUCH BETTER alternatives, such as Accuweather.com. Every time you click on weatherunderground.com, you are enriching Jeff Masters and contributing to his efforts to spread climate alarmism. Thanks.
Interesting post and discussion. Thanks.
Frank K. says:
May 6, 2014 at 7:45 am
The site I use is WeatherTap.com. Costs $7.95/mo but has great radar graphics and good regional forecasts. Accuyweather is on my smartphone.
cirrection: Accuweather..
dalyplanet ,
YW
at least they didn’t put it directly behind jets taking off …
“The rest of the Winter wheat(SRW) crop is OK but very cold temps over Winter took some yield potential away from a crop that had perfect planting conditions last Fall and went dormant in outstanding shape”
I should add that the Soft Red Winter Wheat in grown outside the S.Plains.
The Ohio Valley and points south.
http://www.smallgrains.org/whfacts/growreg.htm
Bruce G Wilkins says: May 5, 2014 at 4:09 pm
As an example the max egt of a 747-400 at take off is 650 degrees C. That is 1202 F. That will warm the area up nicely!
The egt is measured before the turbines that drive the compressors and fan, which extract energy and decrease temperature.
The temperature coming out of a JT8 on a 727, which is an old engine and airplane is only 200 degrees F and falls to 100 degrees F, 100 feet away.
Page 33 here of this report. Copy and paste link into Google.
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a211266.pdf
People, people!
When professionals like Christopher C. Burt and Jeff Masters say there is no urban heat island effect, they are correct! How could anyone doubt the knowledge and integrity of these two professionals? Dr. Masters stated several months back that it was the warmest period in Earths history. Mr. Burt states that the UHI effect was dismissed years ago.
Remember, one of these two professionals flew into hurricane Hugo!
For me those sites are primarily used to calculate the lift threshold for aircraft as other people have mentioned. Our airport is virtually at the same elevation as Witchita. When air temps reach the high nineties we get info from radio and TV as to the possibility of delays until temps drop to a safer level. These sites should not be at all used as “official” sites, they are there for safety reasons and therefore very very local (air safety) reasons.(hot air is thinner providing less lift there are a few AHHH OOOOO moments on youtube).
When Wichita gets Ebola? Then time to worry
Brewster,
Remember, one of these two professionals flew into hurricane Hugo!
Heyyyy! I flew into hurricane Gloria in September 1985.
Funny thing is that another tv meteorologist from Pittsburgh was there and we joked about the 2 of us(me from Indiana) had viewers from a place that would never take a direct hit from a hurricane.
Wait, maybe global warming will melt enough ice to increase sea levels so that by 2100, all the states between Indiana and the ocean will be engulfed (: